There has been growing demand for solid-state materials with submicron dimensions. Submicron particles, especially nanoscale particles, can exhibit unusual chemical, mechanical, electrical, magnetic and optical properties that are different from the corresponding properties of the bulk material and conventional powders. These unusual properties can be exploited in a number of applications. In addition, submicron particles can be applied in coatings for the formation of extremely smooth and uniform coatings.
One advantage of submicron particles relative to larger particles is the increased surface area for a given weight of material. For example, the surface area per weight of nanoscale particles can be one or two orders of magnitude greater than the surface area per is weight of conventional powders. This increase in surface area is desirable for a variety of applications such as those involving catalysis, hydrogen storage and electrical capacitors. The demand for ultrafine chemical powders has resulted in the development of sophisticated techniques, such as laser pyrolysis, for the production of these powders.
Similarly, the consolidation or integration of mechanical, electrical and optical components into integral devices has created enormous demands on material processing. Furthermore, the individual components integrated in the devices are shrinking in size. Therefore, there is considerable interest in the formation of specific compositions applied to substrates. In order to form optical devices with high quality optical compositions from these materials, the corresponding coatings should be highly uniform. Interest in forming highly uniform materials for these coatings has sparked the development of processes to produce the coatings.